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AlmaLinux gives you the RHEL platform (same ABI, same ten-year lifecycle, same ecosystem) for free. Red Hat charges four figures a year per server for the real thing. The interesting question isn't which is cheaper; it's what, precisely, the subscription buys and who actually needs those things. This guide itemises the answer: support SLAs, ISV certifications, live patching and lifecycle add-ons on one side; Alma's genuine independence perks (including drivers Red Hat dropped) on the other, plus the free 16-system Red Hat option most people forget exists.

CentOS Linux is gone (CentOS 8 reached end of life at the end of 2021 and CentOS 7 followed in mid-2024), and CentOS Stream is not a like-for-like replacement. The two real successors are AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, and since 2023 they no longer work the same way under the hood: AlmaLinux targets ABI compatibility with RHEL, Rocky holds 1:1 binary parity. This guide explains what actually differs between them now, gives a conditions-based verdict instead of "it depends," and walks the real migration paths (migrate2rocky, almalinux-deploy, and ELevate for the CentOS 7 cross-major jump), including the pre-flight checklist, the inhibitor wall, and the rollback plan.

A fresh Linux server ships with no firewall rules at all. Every listener you start is instantly reachable from the whole internet. The fix is a short, well-understood baseline: default-deny inbound, allow established traffic, and an explicit allow-list for the services you actually run. This guide builds that baseline in nftables rule by rule, explains the parts everyone gets wrong (ICMP and IPv6), shows the same policy in ufw and firewalld, and covers how not to lock yourself out, plus the Docker port-publishing trap.

If your server runs a current Debian, Ubuntu, or RHEL-family distro, your "iptables" rules are almost certainly already executing inside nftables. The iptables command has been a compatibility shim since 2019. The real question isn't which one wins; it's whether to keep writing rules in a legacy syntax on top of the new engine. This guide covers what actually changed architecturally, a side-by-side syntax comparison, what the honest performance data says, and a migration path that won't break Docker or lock you out.

A Linux dedicated server gives you a whole physical machine with no hypervisor in the way, but which distribution should you run on it? Ubuntu, Debian, the CentOS successors, and RHEL each make different trade-offs around release cadence, support, and cost. This guide explains what a bare-metal Linux server actually is, when it beats a VPS or cloud instance, and how to pick a distribution by workload and support needs, with a side-by-side comparison and links to the right server for each.

A freshly provisioned server starts receiving SSH probes within minutes of its IP going live; honeypot studies show most exposed machines are attacked within a day. The good news: the defences that matter are a short, boring, one-hour checklist, not a security research project. This guide walks the eight steps in order (users and SSH keys, firewall baseline, automatic updates, fail2ban, time sync, a listener audit, and logging) with the exact commands for Debian/Ubuntu and the RHEL family, plus an honest list of what not to waste your first hour on.

Three Ubuntu LTS releases are in service right now: 22.04 approaching the end of standard support, 24.04 in its comfortable middle years, and the new 26.04 "Resolute Raccoon" with Linux 7.0. Which one belongs on your server depends on where you are in the cycle, and the answer is different for new deploys and existing fleets. This guide gives the support-window table, what actually changed in 26.04 for server operators, the honest reasons to stay on 24.04 for now, and the upgrade mechanics, including the August 2026 date when the LTS-to-LTS path opens.

Ubuntu is built from Debian, so this is a comparison between close relatives: same package format, same init system, largely the same administration. The real differences are cadence, support windows, kernel freshness, and who stands behind the updates: a fixed two-year LTS rhythm with optional paid coverage to 2036, versus a community release that's done when it's done and free forever. This guide lays out what the two actually share, where they genuinely differ, and which server workloads favour which, with current versions and support dates, not folklore.

Debian 12 "bookworm" quietly crossed a line in June 2026: regular security support ended, and it now runs on LTS. Debian 13 "trixie" has meanwhile matured through five point releases, which makes this the right moment to do the in-place upgrade. This guide covers the full procedure for a remote production server: the pre-flight checklist (including the interface-renaming trap that can cut a remote box off mid-upgrade), the three-command upgrade itself, and the trixie-specific changes to check afterwards: /tmp on tmpfs, the sysctl move, and OpenSSH 10.